"Inside Front Cover:
The fundamental problem of whether environment or heredity plays the greater part in determining ability is age-old. This study describes an investigation carried out by the Manchester School of Education to determine the relationship between educational attainment and social and environmental factors.
The investigation was based mainly on two extensive surveys conducted in 1951 and 1957 among secondary-school children between 14 and 15 years of age in the Manchester conurbation. Tests were given in reading comprehension, mechanical arithmetic and intelligence. The results were then correlated with environmental factors: family, social group, neighborhood, health, type of school, and character of education. The report also incorporates the research carried out by Dr. F. W. Warburton in 48 schools in Salford, concerned with the relationship between brightness and backwardsness and the school environment.
The results of all 3 researches shows that scholastic performance is strongly associated with social factors, particularly those concerned with the family and the home. One of the surprising findings was that social factors, in this context, appear to have a stronger connection with the intelligence test than with the reading and arithmetic tests. Other findings demonstrate the vital importance of the mother of the family and of the social group in which the pupil moves. It is shown, too, that social factors appear to affect brightness and backwardness differently. Differences are also shown between reading and arithmetic.
In the final chapter the significant findings of the inquiry are discussed within a wider context and their implications for future research are considered."
Author(s): Stephen Wiseman, F.W. Warburton, R.A.C. Oliver
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Year: 1964
Language: English
Pages: 215
Tags: education, pedagogy, social class, poverty, nature vs nurture, social factors in educational attainment, intelligence, behavioral genetics, peer effects, psychometrics
- Foreword by Professor R. A. C. Oliver
- Acknowledgements
I. Preliminary Planning
II. The Testing Programme
- The area
- The children
- The tests
- Test construction
- Summary
- The administration of the tests
III. Results From The Testing
- Reliabilities of the tests
- Standardization of the tests
- Children and schools
- Differences between school types
- Distribution of 'brightness'
- Distribution of 'backwardness'
- Attainment and attendance
IV. Education And Environment: A Survey Of Research
- Intelligence
- Educational attainment and socio-economic status
- Educational attainment and family background
- Educational attainment and the neighbourhood
- Educational attainment and school environment
- Summary
V. The 1951 Manchester Survey
- Social variables
- Educational variables
- Geographical variation
- Correlation analysis
- Factor analysis
- Twins
VI. "Attainment And The School Environment", by Dr F. W. Warburton
- Statistical methods
- Hypotheses
- Results
- Progressiveness
- Size of class
- Size of school
- Percentage attendance
- Good school neighbourhood
- Good school buildings
- Date of school buildings
- Juror index
- Multiple correlations
- Factor analysis
- Conclusions
- Comparison with other researches.
- Future research
VII. The 1957 Survey
- Calibration of reading test
- Distribution of 'backwardness' and 'brightness'
- Social factors
- Correlations
- Factor analysis
- Discussion
VIII. Retrospect And Prospect
- Limitation of test coverage
- Educational guidance
- Temporal change and the pool of ability
- Intelligence: nature or nurture?
- Intelligence and attainment
- School factors: progressiveness
- Attitude to school: punishment
- Attitude to school: attendance
- Teachers' attitudes
- Parental attitudes
- Peer attitudes
- Neighbourhood factors
- Regional differences
- Economic factors
- Methodology
- Appendix-Tables
- Bibliography
- Index
